38 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



accounted for in any other mode. For instance, 

 in the month of March, 1841, Mr. Yarrell informs 

 me that he found a young salmon in the London 

 market, and which he has preserved in spirits, 

 measuring only fifteen inches long, and weighing 

 only fifteen ounces. And again, another the follow- 

 ing April, sixteen and a half inches long, weighing 

 twenty-four ounces. Now, one of these appeared 

 two months and the other a month before the 

 usual time when the fry congregate. According 

 to the received doctrine, therefore, these animals 

 were two of the migration of the preceding year ; 

 and thus it must necessarily follow that they 

 remained in salt water, one ten and the other 

 eleven months, with an increase of growth so small 

 as to be irreconcilable with the proof we have of 

 the ^growth of the gilse and salmon during their 

 residence in salt water. 



Having now sent these tiresome little creatures 

 to sea, it remains to me to trace their progress till 

 they become salmon. 



A few, but a very few of these smolts, return 

 from the sea to the Tweed as early as the month 

 of May ; that is, during the same month in which 

 the general emigration takes place : they then 

 weigh from a pound to two pounds each, and are 

 long and thin, and very forked in the tail. They 

 keep on ascending the river during the summer 

 months, the new-comers increasing afterwards about 

 a pound and a half a month on an average, but much 

 less in their very young state. The most plentiful 

 season in the Tweed, if there is a flood, is about 

 St. Boswell's Fair, namely, the 18th of July, at 



